Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 1S059

Impact of Supernovae on Molecular Cloud Evolution

Körtgen, Bastian (Hamburg Observatory)
Seifried, Daniel (Hamburg Observatory)
Banerjee, Robi (Hamburg Observatory)

Abstract:
Feedback from massive stars is thought to be a main agent in controlling star formation and determining the evolution of molecular clouds. On the one hand, they continuously inject energy into the ambient medium through their winds and their ionizing radiation. On the other hand, they end their short lives as a supernovae, injecting a huge amount of energy in a short amount of time into the interstellar medium. Hence, massive stars should influence their close environments as well as the global dynamics of the molecular clouds in which they are embedded. Yet, it is unclear to what extent the feedback from massive stars affect the star formation rate and efficiency and the global lifetime of molecular clouds. In this work we focus our study on the effect of supernovae on the dynamics and structure of molecular clouds by means of 3D MHD simulations. With our numerical experiments based on colliding flow simulations we are able to probe how efficiently energy is injected to the surrounding interstellar medium and whether supernovae are able to disrupt entire molecular clouds. Furthermore, we are able to probe the possible effect of triggered and continued star formation by the supernovae.

Click here to view poster PDF